Verified answer

Is there love in Polygamy? Try the breakdown of love in society due to people's inability to stick to one partner in marriage.

No polygamy is not a social problem, it depends on how you look at t. The social problem is all in how society views polygamy relationships. Polygamy is about the love you share and feel with multiple partners.It all about being part of a loving happy family.Much like gay marriage the social problem is that its is looked as being bad and not accepted. As long as you feel happy it should not matter if some one chooses to be part of a polygamy relationship.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

How is polygamy a social problem? Why?

How is polygamy a social problem?

Why is it a social problem?

Im helping a friend do a paper and I have been trying to find her some answers and help as much as possible. Any input and/or sources are appreciated

Thanks :)

A child from a polygamous family said she only wants her future husband to love only her. That is more than enough reassurance to me that polygamy only contributes to problems.

Polygamy isn't a social problem. Gender inequality, domestic violence, and criminalizing consensual adults relationships is a social problem, not adults freely choosing to marry each other. An adult should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any consenting adults.

Someone else's disapproval or lack of interest is not a problem with polygamy.

Some say polygamy hurts children. There is no evidence of this and numerous studies show that the only harm is from prejudice and a lack of marriage equality. Marriage is not about children as we don’t require people to reproduce, even when they get married, and we allow those who are unable or unwilling to reproduce to marry. Most people do not believe sex or marriage is only for reproduction. Most sex does not result in a birth. Many people claim it is better to raise children within marriage. How can we deny that benefit to the children being raised by people currently denied their right to marry? Where does this knowing what is best for the children of other people stop? Should single parents lose custody? Should we compel pregnant women to get a specific kind of prenatal care?

There was a study that said children from polygynous families have "considerably lower" survival rates, but the data is from nineteenth century frontier areas and places in Africa where diseases and genocide are significant problems. The other claim is that adolescent boys are driven from polygynous societies, but there are many adolescent boys driven from their heterosexual monogamous homes because they are gay, or boys who run away for the sake of personal freedom, rather than deal with familial or peer pressure to adhere to certain rules and expectations. Or they can’t stand their “monogamous” parent’s new girlfriend or boyfriend.

These types of relationships are not inherently abusive. Abusive people are the cause of abuse, not marriage. There are many monogamous marriages in which someone is abused. We have several examples showing that outlawing consensual behavior correlates to an increase in problems as people try to avoid law enforcement and other authorities. Marriage equality will most certainly reduce abuse, as abuse victims can go to the authorities with much less fear. So the solution isn’t the status quo, it is in making the relationships official, and prosecuting abusers. Victims will be much more forthcoming.

Some people wonder about child custody and child support. What about children from one night stands, donated sperm, surrogate mothers, affairs, brief flings, or supposedly monogamous marriage that's ending? What about children born to a woman whose husband wasn’t the man who impregnated her? All of these situations are entirely legal. A court decides custody disputes that aren’t resolved amicably.

Some people say "some men will be left out as polygyny increases.” This is based on the assumption that in a culture with gender equality, polygyny would still be more plentiful than polyandry. Anti-equality people, based on this assumption, insist that this will result in unmarried men devolving into criminals.

The mistake here is assuming that the second, third, etc. wives in a polygynous marriage would have wanted one of those unmarried men rather than legally sharing the man they did marry, and that the unmarried men would in turn want to marry them. Some of those men may want to marry men, or not marry at all. Why not allow people to marry the person or people of their choice? Why try to force people to settle? Also, the system is not closed. There are billions of people in the world and more and more people are reaching the age and status of eligibility every second.

The study attempting to link polygny to criminal behavior in unmarried men is based in part on nineteenth century frontier America. Things have changed a little since then. And guess what? Married men commit crime, too. Most of the men in prison have been married, were married or had a girlfriend at the time they were convicted.

Maybe men in the hypothetical polygynous community who don’t get married are violent people. Is it better that they have a wife to beat instead of committing crimes on the street? I don’t want to be the one who tells a woman she can’t marry the man/men or woman/women she wants; rather, she has to marry a less desirable man so that he can take his aggression out on her.

The warnings that polygamy will result in an increase of violent gangs of unmarried men committing crimes falls flat when one considers the overwhelming data revealing both that 1) Men in the US are getting married for the first time later than ever, and 2) Crime rates in the US have decreased.

Polygamy in the US has a long history as many Native American tribes practiced it. European mountain men often took native wives and adopted the practice. Some tribes seem to have continued the practice into the 20th century.

Polygamy has never been legal in the United States nor in any single state in the United States.

Polygamy is practiced discreetly by some Muslims living in America, especially Muslims in

Philadelphia.

Utopian and communal groups established during the mid-19th century had varying marriage systems, including group marriage and polygyny. There is also evidence of polygamy in the south, especially after the Civil War.

The Mormon practice of plural marriage was introduced on July 12, 1843 and officially abandoned Sep 25, 1890, but polygamy persists in some sects of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Latter-day Church of Christ and the Apostolic United Brethren in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and other neighboring states.

Overall in Utah today those living in polygamist families number about 40,000 people or about 2% of the population. They are very difficult to prosecute as so many only file for a marriage license for the first marriage, while others are done in secret in private ceremonies, and secondary wives attempt to be seen in public as single women with children.

Some polygamous families use a system of multiple divorce and legal marriage as a loophole in order to avoid committing a criminal act. The husband marries the first wife, she takes his last name and they divorce; he marries another, the wife takes his last name and they divorce; he marries another - she takes his last name and they divorce eetc...This way the wives all legally have his last name and can call themselves "Mrs. so-and-so" and expect those around them to acknowledge and respect this.

Since only one wife is officially married at any one time, no law is being broken so this type of polygamist family unit can be overt (open) about their relationship.

Daughter-swapping of polygamous families can result in more wives, arranged marriages, and marriage to underage girls.

Young men are often forced to leave the communities so older men can marry the young women, there is often inbreeding of fairly close blood relatives.

These fundamentalist sects (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) practicing polygamy range from a few hundred to about 10,000 in various communities of the Western USA, Canada and Mexico.

Some polygamists commit fraud to obtain welfare and other public assistance.

In 1953, the state of Arizona investigated and raided a group of 385 people in the polygamist practicing colony of Hildale and Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border. All the men were arrested and the children placed with foster families, A judge eventually ruled this action illegal and everyone returned to the community which now numbers about 10,000.

In 2005 the state attorneys-general of Utah and Arizona issued a primer on helping victims of domestic violence and child abuse in polygamous communities. Enforcement of crimes such as child abuse, domestic violence, and fraud were emphasized over the enforcement of anti-polygamy and bigamy laws.

In 2008 Texas State officials took 436 women and children into temporary legal custody after Rozita Swinton, a 33 year old woman living in Colorado Springs, Colo called both Texas Social Services and a local shelter claiming to be a 16 year old girl. She made a series of phone calls to authorities in late March claiming she had been beaten and forced to become a "spiritual" wife to an adult man.

Acting on her calls, authorities raided the ranch in Eldorado, about 40 miles south of San Angelo. The YFZ Ranch is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a Mormon offshoot that practices polygamy. Two men were arrested for obstructing the raid but were later released. All the families/children taken were released and many lawsuits are still pending against the state.